SUMMER IN THE SOUDAN.
Gakdul, 20th March 1885.
Even if failure may be fairly said to have marked the first grand stage of our latest African campaign, those who have taken part in it can, with a clear conscience, wash their hands of the blood of the just person they were sent to rescue; for, as a matter of fact, as soon as the route – right or wrong – was decided on, there was absolutely not one day's delay from start to finish.
And such a finish! Exquisitely sad to all, from the general in command to the humblest member of the expedition; and, let us charitably suppose, not without some tinge of sadness to those on whom the terrible weight of the responsibility of the delay and consequent catastrophe must ever lie.
Probably no campaign was ever entered upon, the end of which, after an exceedingly short time, was more eagerly longed for by all concerned, though in various degrees.
Longed for, probably, by its commander, who must have always foreseen that a check such as he has experienced would, if its effects were to be counteracted and the status quo recovered, inevitably lead to many months of comparative inaction for his troops in one of the most trying climates in the world. Longed for by those who volunteered to take part in it, fondly hoping to have been ere now on their triumphal return home, ready to recount to all and sundry the stirring events and incidents, the relation of which becomes so much more lifelike with tho pleasing preface of quorum pars fui. And, last but not least, longed for by those few who, having spent the anxious and uncertain months of last spring and summer in the unsupported Nubian outposts, had hoped that now, at all events, their warfare was accomplished, and that they were not doomed, as is their lot, to pass the burning summer in the rather less risky posts they presently occupy on the line of communications.
That each individual of the small force so unfortunately but necessarily scattered throughout the Soudan should be actuated in different degrees by the same wish, is attributable to various causes, into which it is interesting, as they may be said to be the centre of all interest now, to look.
To commence with their chief. His personal anxiety, above and beyond the mere professional desire to preserve the lives intrusted to him, must be deep and absorbing, and should enlist the sympathy of all, for the task he has in hand – a task of as great, if not greater, difficulty than the one he has failed to accomplish, because of the long period which must now elapse during which his men will have to grapple with the deadly influences of climate and the inevitable ill effects of enforced inaction. And yet, perhaps, "deadly" is hardly the word to employ. Except in one or two places, the climate, for a tropical one, may be called healthy, on account of its excessive dryness. So the struggle between man and his unseen foes may be measured by his ability to resist the burning sun, the distressing sand-storms, and the blasting winds, which will be his portion for the next few months.
It would be an interesting point
